Designed as a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, various versions of the Dauntless served during the war with the US Marine Corps, Army and Navy. The Douglas was the only plane to fight in every major Pacific engagement. The SBD-3,sarcastically nicknamed “Speedy Three”, entered service in March 1941 with production ending in July 1944, by which time a total of 5,936 had been built in all versions.

On May 8, 1942 when the USS Yorktown and USS Lexington were attacked by aircraft from the Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku part of the defense force was provided by SBD-3’s from USS Lexington. The SBD-3 BuNo.4537 “White S-8” of VS-2 crewed by Lt(jg) William E Hall and Seaman 1st Class John A Moore was assigned to low-level anti-torpedo aircraft patrol. During the fighting pilot Lt.(jg) William E. Hall was seriously wounded in the foot but continued to fight shooting down at least one Nakajima B5N. When Hall landed his aircraft it was so damaged that it was jettisoned overboard. In January 1942 the US Navy began to change recognition markings on its aircraft and for several months aircraft were seen wearing various combinations of markings.